Do the positives of bringing back Carlos Santana outweigh the negatives?

It's safe to say that last week's flurry of transactions from the Cleveland Guardians caught everyone by surprise. Cleveland decided to trade Josh Naylor to the Arizona Diamondbacks, creating a hole at first base.

At first, it appeared that the Guardians were looking to hand the keys to the first base gig to Kyle Manzardo with the occasional appearance from a rotating cast of characters, but that turned out not to be the case as they brought back Carlos Santana on a one-year deal. With the trade and signing now (somewhat) in the rearview mirror, it is now time to determine whether or not their dealings will end up being more beneficial than detrimental.

Offensively, Santana is a more steady presence at the plate on a year-over-year basis, and his trademark ability to get on base via a walk is still over 10%, which happens to be higher than Naylor's career-best of 9.2% from last season. Unfortunately for Cleveland, Naylor's offensive ceiling is higher than the soon-to-be 39-year-old Santana's, which could prove to be a problem.

Coming off his best year as a pro at age 27, Naylor could very well be putting everything together as he is about to hit his prime, and that could make the Guardians' decision to trade him for a light return and replace him at first with Santana look like a mistake very quickly. Sure, Santana has a lower range of variance in his offensive output, but Cleveland should be looking to raise their offensive ceiling rather than their floor at this point on their competitive timeline.

An area in which the Guardians could receive the most benefit from bringing in Santana is his defense. Naylor was average defensively on a good day, and finding a way to get better in that area on the right side of the infield following Cleveland's trade with the Blue Jays that sent Andres Gimenez to Toronto is not a bad idea. Santana won a Gold Glove, his first, with the Minnesota Twins last season, and having that type of glove should help make up for the loss of Gimenez.

Speaking of defense, having Santana at first should help Manzardo's long-term future at the position when it becomes time for him to take over full time. Manzardo's defense at first needs quite a bit of work, and having someone coming off of a Gold Glove-winning season help him at least become adequate would go a long way for the infield defense of the Guardians.

So, do the positives outweigh the negatives? At this time, no. But do the negatives outweigh the positives? Also no. If anything, this is a push, at least as things stand currently. With that being said, the best-case scenario really is that the Guardians can match what they got last season from first base and DH, with it being more likely that the production falls short of their 2024 total, even with the defensive aspects of everything factored in and even weighed more heavily than the offense. Cleveland needs everything to go right for this to work out in their favor, and that very well may be just too much to ask for with the way they are currently positioned.